<p>I never said FSU wasn’t good. I am saying rants like bio’s, and then to a lesser extent your latest aspersion on private schools, make the poster look bad, and thus to a small extent the school they are trying to defend. You know, the CDS is not a govt. issued mandate. It is a voluntary thing that while no doubt convenient, often has all the same errors and fudging that happened without it. Having or not having one has nothing to do with the academic quality of a school. Do I wish they all (including Tulane) published one for convenience? Sure, but that is all it is. Most of the same data, including historical data, can be obtained from their websites. It just takes a bit more digging in some cases. A pain, but that’s all it is.</p>
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Such as what?</p>
<p>You are clearly welcome to your opinion regarding FSU and any other school. The numbers are what they are.</p>
<p>I am going to list all my quotes on this this thread where it pertained to FSU. Show me one place, either of you, where I disparaged FSU.</p>
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It was funny that on this one parent2noles went back and edited the post to which I refer in order to include what I said, which the later timestamp clearly shows. Must not have realized FSU was doing the same thing at the time.</p>
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OK admittedly I could have left out the line about delusions. But still, nothing really negative about FSU, just factual citations, and certainly nothing many other schools are not doing.</p>
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I don’t think acknowledging that Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, UVA, UNC-CH, Wisconsin and a few others are more highly regarded public schools than FSU is denigrating FSU in the least. That would be like saying that ackowledging Harvard is more highly regarded than Washington University in St. Louis or Vanderbilt is denigrating those fine schools.</p>
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Acknowledging that he/she was wrong and I was right, although I also said the data on the CDS was from enrolled students, so not sure why they made it sound like they were correcting me on that point.</p>
<p>So maybe I am just not seeing it, but I am having a hard time finding where I was whining about anything, or putting down any school. Bio, on the other hand, has shown virtually no class at all, but of course everyone can see that. People don’t rag on a school that way unless they have something against them due to something personal. Admit it, don’t admit it, we really don’t care. Just know that running down another school that way only reflects badly on you.</p>
<p>you know, there is like, a private message feature in this forum. im getting tired of ppl aruguing in this thread. its 5 pages long and really annoying to see ppl trying to prove that they are right. and from the looks of it there are only 2 main ppl still posting here.</p>
No, I answered the question very directly, I just gave you more credit for being able to put 2 and 2 together than I obviously should have. If you cannot see the relationship between being in the top 10% of your high school class, which is based on GPA, and having a high GPA, then I am afraid there is no hope. How exactly do you think people get into the top 10% of their class? Your claim that Tulane students have high SAT scores but low GPA’s is clearly contradicted by the percentage that are in the top 10% of their class. You cannot be in the top 10% of your high school class with a “subpar” GPA. Really not that hard to understand.</p>
<p>As far as what you consider disparaging remarks, do you really believe FSU is above the other publics I mentioned in either the academic profile of their students or in research rankings? Do you believe it is above Vandy? If so, you are in an extreme minority. If not, then it is simply a fact and therefore cannot be disparaging. Maybe you don’t like to hear it, but it does not make it less true.</p>
<p>Well, I will try one more time just for fun. It takes a high GPA to be in the top 10% of your high school class. 2/3 of the Tulane students were in the top 10% of their high school class. Therefore 2/3 of Tulane students (at a minimum) had high GPA’s. That’s exactly what 2/3 of people in the top 10% means. Your definition of subpar is clearly different than mine. I don’t think being below the Harvard (or Duke or Vandy) average makes it subpar. Look up the definition of subpar. Just so you know, the average UW GPA of the entering class for Tulane this year is 3.6, up from 3.55 last year. Maybe you think that is subpar, most people would not. </p>
<p>Show me one place where I said Tulane had higher GPA’s than the very top schools. You cannot. I never claimed most Tulane students had GPA’s good enough to get into Harvard, etc. That was never even the topic. Their SAT scores are not at that level either. So? If you recall, all I said was that for students that have the stats to get into higher ranked schools (and I used the examples of Harvard, Duke, and Tulane), FSU is a safety. I never said or even implied those schools are equal, you inferred it (incorrectly I might add). The statement is true. For a student with the stats to get into Tulane, FSU is a safety. That isn’t an insult to FSU, it is an obvious fact.</p>
<p>I am not distorting anything. I made the comment about FSU not being considered one of the top public universities solely to make a point about their reported GPA. You took offense to it. Sorry I hurt your feelings, although it is beyond me why.</p>
<p>You are using old data, but you also are simply incorrect in virtually all respects. Even if it were 3.49 (which was 4 years ago), it proves nothing of the kind. Since when is a 3.5 (excuse me for rounding) that is truly UW a low GPA? Interesting standard. Of course, you ignored my request for you to point out where I said it was as good as the top 20 schools, for example. You just made that up. Ah well.</p>
Well, the Tulane threads and Facebook pages have lots of students who relate how they turned down Chicago, Vandy, Wash U, Norhtwestern etc. to go to Tulane. Are you familiar with the US Presidential Scholars Award? Only 2 people from each state win based on academics, plus a few that win the arts awards. 141 high school seniors out of 3.5 million win this. Tulane has 2 winners attending this year. I could also show you the link that demonstrates Tulane has had more national scholarship winners like Marshal’s than some much higher ranked schools. But of course you are right, no student would consider Tulane at a higher level than FSU.</p>
As was already established, the Tulane GPA is UW while the FSU GPA is weighted. Miami and Florida also use weighted GPA’s. This is clear, because only they publish ranges that have GPA’s over 4.0. Besides, how could only 1/3 of the FSU freshmen be in the top 10% of their class and have a higher average GPA than Tulane, where 2/3 are in the top 10%? That defies common sense.</p>
<p>Why are we discussing Tulane here? Miami is now the number one ranked school in Florida, something that UF never saw as a possibility. What has happened to UF to begin to slip in the rankings? Is this a trend? The PA score is a factor and Machen’s past actions are certainly being punished. It will be interesting to see what happens next year. No doubt that UF remains a good choice if you are looking for a cheap and regional education.</p>
<p>MYOpinion…congrats on U Miami moving up in the USNEws rankings. I’m glad Florida finally has a private school in the top-50. But you are guilty of hubris when you say things like “something that UF never saw as a possibility”. Who, exactly, was the official from UF that made this statement? I’d like to see it. Also your comment “… PA score is a factor and Machen’s past actions are certainly being punished” is also demonstrably false as UF’s PA did not slip and is, in fact, higher than UMs.</p>
<p>You should be proud that UM is moving up in the rankings and leave it at that. There is no need to start making denigrating claims of (Your)Opinion and trying to pass it off as fact.</p>
<p>The rankings are distorting the public perception of some fine universities. Such rankings are positive in the regard they facilitate correction of some problems but a profound negative in the incorrect weighing of value. I suppose they are getting better, but they have a long way to go in my opinion.</p>
<p>Some of you reading this will wonder about references to “bio” or “biograduate”. To explain and answer another poster, Tulane was brought up in the context of how Florida compared to it in the rankings, and then other topics appeared. My intention was not to make this about Tulane, but only to use it as a point of reference during discussions of other points like GPA and the like because I know it very well. For no reason that anyone can discern and he would admit, this biograduate went ballistic and resorted to name calling and just bizarre behavior, as well as rather irrational comments. The moderators chose to delete his posts, so you cannot tell what some replies are referring to.</p>
<p>This thread is not about Tulane, it is about the USNWR ranking system (mostly how poor it is), the fudging that goes on by a lot of schools in reporting data, that kind of thing and how it relates to the rankings of these schools.</p>
<p>I remember a few years ago, UF cut the national merit scholarship from $6000/year to $1000/year and said according to their calculations, it would have no effect on their ability to attract top students.</p>
<p>^^^ Exactly. UF loved to throw around the fact that they had the second highest number of National Merit Finalists in the country, after Harvard! It looked great in all brochures. But it was nothing more than a tactic to increase the school reputation (nothing wrong with that, but these students were really going there for the almost free ride and all the perks, not just the “great academics” ) When the money ran out, so did the number of National Merit Finalists that chose UF.</p>
<p>The important thing is that the school continues to be a great bargain for the money. So, if you are a Florida resident, it is still a very attractive choice…cows, frat parties and all.</p>
<p>Or maybe because the public university system took a beating from budget cuts because this state as a whole obviously does not invest or make higher education a priority. As long as they keep slashing funding to UF and FSU and other public schools in Florida you will see them continue to drop in rankings and private schools rise. </p>
<p>Even UM’s president did not boast about the new #1 rankings as she acknowledges the budget cuts were what most likely allowed UM to slightly edge by UF, for now. If the state will get its ish together, raise tuition and reduce classroom sizes then I can without a doubt see UF crack the top 40 and FSU potentially breaking into the top 75…If UF had as much flexibility as UM in terms of how the university operates itself…which university do you think has more potential to be a top 40 school…?</p>
<p>USNews changed ranking methodolgy this year. Obviously some schools will rise and some will fall in the rankings without any change whatsoever in the underlying fundamentals. The change to UF’s rankings is likely nothing more than noise. What has hurt UF in the past and continues to hurt UF in the rankings is class size…nothing more and nothing less.</p>
<p>It is silly, of course to directly compare the rankings of a nimble medium size private with a large public NRU that has a completly different mission statement.</p>